OKC plans $130M affordable housing push as 77,000 households struggle
Oklahoma City is set to spend $130 million on affordable housing in the next decade as planners seek to prevent what one councilman described as a looming "housing crisis" triggered by rapid population growth. Shannon Entz, named the city's first Housing Strategy Implementation Manager, told the city council an estimated 77,000 households in Oklahoma City are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Of those, 48,000 (62%) are renters. Oklahoma City's 14% eviction rate in 2024, meanwhile, was 7 percentage points higher than the national average. And while the city has spent $100 million on adding affordable housing over the past decade, Entz warned the city is looking at the population hitting 1 million by 2055. "The challenges are many," Entz said. "Our team and staff have been vigorously looking at policy updates and programmatic changes to make sure that we're ready for the big task ahead of us." The numbers alarmed Ward 2 Councilman James Cooper, who called the report a warning that Oklahoma City faces a housing crisis. The city's first housing strategy, as presented Tuesday, proposes to work with stakeholders to build 4,000 new homes in Oklahoma City each year across a
